Goldman Environmental Prize goes to Texas man who took on refineries over pollution

“A lot has changed,” Kelley said. “Even though we have a long way to go, it’s better than it was. They’ve reduced the amount of flaring that shoots fire from a smokestack for days. They’re updating antiquated equipment. Enforcement has been stepped up by the state. They know people are watching.”

Not everyone in Port Arthur was supportive, Kelley said. He said he engaged in shouting matches with a former mayor who thought Kelley’s efforts would chase away the companies and jobs.

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Kelley “was up against four other people who were finalists for North America” for the prize, said Lorrae Rominger, the Goldman group’s deputy director. He won because “his community had almost been destroyed from the pollution, which was the reason people were moving out. It was the children’s health. He did something that affected thousands of people.”

The other winners are:

l  Ursula Sladek, 54, a German mother who founded Parents for a Nuclear-Free Future after she was shaken by the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union. The organization developed into Germany’s first community-owned utility, powering 100,000 customers in the town of Schonau with renewable energy such as wind and solar power. Sladek’s goal is to reach a million customers by 2015.

l  Francisco Pineda, 45, a Salvadoran farmer who’s fighting to stop Pacific Rim, a Canadian gold mining company, from damaging the nation’s water supply by using cyanide that is flowing into the Rio Lempa, according to news reports and the prize’s organizers. As a result of Pineda’s efforts, the government suspended Pacific Rim’s exploration permits in 2008.

l  Prigi Arisandi, 34, the Indonesian leader of an effort to protect 3 million island inhabitants from 74 tons of waste that flows into the Surabaya River. Arisandi grew up playing in the river. He founded two organizations, one of which spawned an activist network against water pollution and another that taught children to monitor water quality and report problems to the government.

l  Raoul du Toit, 53, a Zimbabwean who helped save the black rhino from the kind of political unrest and poaching that have devastated animal species in neighboring countries. Now he is working to save white rhinos in Zambia and Botswana that are hunted for their prized horns.

l  Dmitry Lisitsyn, 42, a Russian conservationist who is working to protect the rich natural resources of Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk from petroleum exploration. Lisitsyn has closely monitored development by Sakhalin Energy and has lobbied the government to place tighter restrictions on the company. When the energy company’s seismic testing disturbed the gray whale’s breeding season, Lisitsyn persuaded it to conduct the tests at a different time of year.